August 2009

A few weeks ago we gave you a sneak preview of the Spotify app for the iPhone, one of the special projects we’ve been pouring ourselves into as we look to give our users the ability to listen to all of our music on the move.

We’re now thrilled to let you know that the lovely people at Apple have given our mobile app a big thumbs up, meaning that our Premium subscribers in the UK, Sweden, France, Spain, Norway and Finland will be able to download Spotify for free from the App Store soon.

Spotify on the iPhone will include many of the features our users enjoy on the desktop, with the added advantage of letting you listen to your playlists even when you haven’t got a network connection, for instance when on a plane or the underground. We’ll be sure to let you know here on the blog as soon as it’s in the App Store.

Now hear this! To celebrate the unveiling of this year’s Barclaycard Mercury Prize winner on Tuesday 8th September, we’ve teamed up with the wonderful people at Mercury to offer our Spotify Premium UK members the chance to win some rather special prizes of their own.

The winner of this year’s Mercury Prize will be announced live on BBC Two as part of the broadcaster’s coverage of the Awards Show, hosted by Jools Holland… and we’ve got a pair of VIP tickets to the show, to be held at London’s Grosvenor House Hotel, to give away to one lucky member.

If that wasn’t enough, Mercury has delivered us a pumping Bose SoundDock portable digital music system, designed specifically for the iPod, to give away as a special runner’s up prize, together with a silky set of Bose in-ear headphones. Now how’s that for a slice of deep fried gold?

To be in with a chance of winning either of these great prizes, simply leave a comment on this post saying who you think should win this year’s Mercury Prize, and why.

Winners will be contacted on September 2nd. Lycka till! (as they say in Sweden).

Oxjam, leading charity Oxfam’s month-long nationwide festival aimed at bringing people together to combat global poverty, has just announced its artist showcase at Matter, London’s premier music venue at the 02 Arena, on October 16th.

As well as cracking headliners, festival goers will be able to enjoy the launch of the portable Oxfam shop on site, with a chance to bag a stylish outfit makeover. The shop even has it’s own bar, DJ Booth and dancefloor, where you can bag bargains and strut your stuff. So do your best to get your hands on the hottest festival season-finale tickets in town – and help Oxfam to boot. Tickets are on sale now at the C2BK website, at an early bird price of £15.

We’re honoured to be a part of what is set to be a truly spectacular month of music and will be handing out some VIP tickets to a few lucky premium subscribers in the run up to the festival – so continue to watch out for details.

This Thursday, London jazz diva Paloma Faith, the 1950s throwback who’s been described as “a mix between Peggy Lee and Bjork” is giving a performance to an exclusive crowd at Stockholm’s Village and we’ve got three very special pairs of tickets to give away to Spotify Premium members in Sweden.

If you want to be in with a chance of winning VIP tickets to the guaranteed-to-be-smoulderingly-hot show (she was formerly a burlesque dancer), then be sure to leave a comment on the blog saying why you should gain entry, and we’ll contact the winners this Thursday. Doors opens at 20.00, with Faith getting the party started at 21.00. There’s only a few days left, so be sure to get in quick!

Faith, who can be seen in Terry Gilliam’s upcoming movie The Imaginarium Of Doctor Parnassus, Heath Ledger’s final film before his death last year, will release her debut album later next month. Her first single from the album Stone Cold Sober was released recently.

Twenty-year-old singer songwriter Steve Appleton will release his debut album on 31st August. Taking inspiration from an array of genres including Pop, Rock, Funk and Dance, Steve has an ear for tune, an eye for an incredible live show and single-handedly wrote and produced his entire album.

7 Worlds Collide was a live album released in 2001 by New Zealand singer/songwriter, Neil Finn. In December of 2008 the 7 Worlds Collide line up reconvened to record a charity album for Oxfam.

Starting today Spotify Premium users in the UK can listen exclusively to the new album, The Sun Came Out, before it’s released. Familiar faces from the original album abound, Johnny Marr, Ed O’Brien and Phil Selway of Radiohead and the likes of KT Tunstall and Wilco are all included.

Music mythology dictates that artists who’ve tasted success with a mercurial debut in many cases struggle with their Difficult Second Album. Not so a certain Jack Peñate, who has delighted fans and critics alike with his follow up Everything Is New.

‘Sunny and gloriously assured’, ‘brave and exhilirating’ and ‘rather brilliant’ are just some of the praises showered on Jack’s latest effort, whose popular debut followed the 2007 trend for cockney slices of life, with pearly king Jamie T and queen Kate Nash also finding fame at around the same period.

Last week, exactly twenty years to the day when four Manchester musicians stepped on to the stage of the Blackpool Empress Ballroom for what would become a legendary gig, Sony Music re-released the classic album that is ‘The Stone Roses’.

The Collector’s Edition features a fully re-mastered version of the album by original producer John Leckie and Ian Brown, alongside a host of bonus discs, unseen footage, additional tracks and interviews. Also included is the full DVD of that legendary Empress Ballroom show, a complete set of re-mastered B sides and non-album A sides for the band’s Silvertone singles, and most importantly ‘The Lost Demos’ – a previously unheard selection of early recordings of the album tracks B side single tracks.

On top of that, the Collector’s Edition features John Leckie’s personal home movie ‘Up at Sawmills: The Making of Fools Gold’, which is on a natty Lemon shaped USB – in homage to the album’s iconic sleeve art – together with a 48-page bound book with unseen images and brand new interviews with the members of the band and their fans.

So if you fancy getting your hands on the Roses’ definitive collector’s box set and are a Spotify Premium member, drop us a quick ‘why I should win’ comment on the blog and we’ll pick a winner on September 1st. Good luck!

A couple of days ago we added 24,907 new albums – that’s 229,221 tracks in total!

With so much music having been added it simply wouldn’t be fair of us to pick out highlights… so here’s a somewhat random selection for your sensory pleasure:

We’ll be releasing a spreadsheet for this update early next week, so make sure to check back on this post then. It’s worth noting that as with every Spotify update, not all albums listed may be available in your country and some tracks previously available may no longer be playable due to regional restrictions.